Alan Webb taking the 2007 Fifth Avenue Mile title (Courtesy of New York Road Runners)

New York, USA – American Mile record-holder Alan Webb will make a rare appearance on the roads, opening his Olympic-year campaign at the Central Park Challenge on Saturday, 15 March. The race will serve as the USA Men’s 8K Championships.

Webb, a 2004 Olympian and a member of the U.S. World Championships teams in 2005 and 2007, is the first professional athlete named to a men’s field that will feature a host of America’s best distance runners from the mile to the marathon.

Of course, Webb, 25, is hardly a road racing novice, having taken a road victory in the Continental Airlines® Fifth Avenue Mile in September 2007, holding off the defending champion, Kevin Sullivan of Canada, in the closing metres to claim his first victory on the streets of New York City. He also finished second in the 2005 Fifth Avenue Mile.

“I am really excited about running the USA 8K champs,” Webb said. “It will be great to start my season off by running in New York City.”

New for this year, New York Road Runners will add a Women’s Invitational race, which will feature an exclusive field of top U.S. and international stars. Both races will be contested over the 8K (4.97-mile) distance  with a total prize-money purse of $70,000.

The 8K race course will consist of three laps of Central Park’s lower loop, starting and finishing on West Drive near Tavern on the Green. Like the men’s Olympic Trials marathon in Central Park last November, the multi-loop course will allow fans to see the runners four times from ideal vantage points along the sides of the road. The NYRR 8000 people’s race will be held prior to both professional races.

A $10,000 bonus will be awarded to any winner who breaks the existing American 8K record of 22:04 for the men (Alberto Salazar, 1981) or 24:36 for the women (Deena Kastor, 2005).

NYRR